In front of you is the very image Bilbao carries on its coat of arms: a church beside a bridge over the river. Check the city crest on any lamppost or public building: alongside the wolves of the Lords of Biscay, you will find this church and this crossing.

1A town with privileges

In 1300, Diego López V de Haro, Lord of Biscay, granted a town charter to the people living on this bank. That document turned a handful of houses by the water into a town with its own laws, a market and the right to trade. The bridge already existed before 1318, perhaps even before the founding, and for centuries it was the only one across the river. Goods between Castile and the sea passed over it, and the people of Bilbao defended that monopoly with lawsuits and, at times, with more than lawsuits.

The bridge you see is not the medieval one. Floods, which locals called aguaduchos, brought it down several times; the current bridge went up around 1880, downstream of the church, and had to be rebuilt after it was blown up during the Civil War, in 1937.

2A church on a city wall

Where San Antón stands there was once a river warehouse and, from 1334, a fortress with a wall ordered by Alfonso XI. A first church was consecrated on its remains in 1433; the present Gothic church was finished around 1510. The Renaissance doorway was carved in the 1540s and the Baroque tower completed in 1775. In the 1983 flood, the water tore away doors and railings.

3What to look for

  • The angled corner at the east end of the church, cut back to let the water through.
  • The Renaissance doorway, with its balcony of 1559.
  • The bridge’s two arches, mirrored in the river at high tide.
Old black-and-white photograph of San Antón church and bridge reflected in the river
San Antón photographed by Indalecio Ojanguren in the first half of the 20th century.

Documented

Bilbao received its town charter from Diego López V de Haro in 1300; the bridge predates 1318 and the present church of San Antón was finished around 1510 on the remains of the 1334 wall.

Sources and credits

Bilbao City Council (bilbao.eus), history of the town; Basque Government, listing of San Antón church as a Site of Cultural Interest (1984); Teófilo Guiard, “Historia de la Noble Villa de Bilbao” (1905-1912).

Photos:

  • The Gothic church of San Antón with its Baroque tower beside the two-arched stone bridge over the Bilbao estuary: Falk2, CC BY-SA 4.0.
  • Old black-and-white photograph of San Antón church and bridge reflected in the river: Indalecio Ojanguren, CC BY-SA 3.0 es.

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